She may mourn the time stolen from her to arrange her affairs, renew old relationships, say goodbyes to people and activities important to her, and the like or she may imagine that, because she was told she was terminally ill, some mistake must have been made in her diagnosis and therefore her healthcare providers may be less than competent. Further, as Leo Tolstoy described so richly in his famous short story, The Death of Ivan Ityich, the dawning awareness of one’s true status as a terminally ill person, when coupled with the unwillingness of family and other to converse truthfully about that reality, can yield an agony of loneliness and isolation. Clearly, none of these consequences is intended or desired by those engaging in “benevolent deception,” yet any of them are nevertheless possible consequences. Children who wish to “protect” their parents from potentially painful information need to understand that reality, too.